The one that I used to test out Windows 8 on my machine was VirtualBox that is made by Oracle. It is free also and worked very well for me. It was super easy and here is a link if you want to try it with Windows 8.

So I am pretty green at this virtual ware stuff so I have a few questions if you guys can point me right please.

Heres what I was trying to doI want to run MW2, Ghost Bear Legacy and MW2 Mercs (all Win 95 versions) on my old XP machine.I found a little program called hook or inject and tried it for MW2 and it worked perfectly, even in better than 640x480 display mode. actually not bad at all. The inject program says it works for Ghost bear and MW2Mercs, but I installed GBL and it didnt work nor did the inject program for it. I did not try MW2Mercs (yet)

So looking around I found the oracle program that Smaga listed and downloaded it just by coinsidense.

EDIT I tried the VM player DDay suggested but it would not install on my machine, however the oracle version did. After installing it, it appears that now I need to install the software (win 98) and anything I want to run thru Win 98. Is that how it works?

I was thinking of doing a triple bootWin 98Win XpLinux Mint but I read where you have to install them in that order. Pain.

So how does the Vm program work?After I install it, I can then set up a virtual drive with Win 98 settings and install Win98 onto it, then install whatever games (I also have some old DOS games i really like)?

Right now I run the old MW games and the old DOS games on ANOTHER PC with Win98 on it, but I have to change over the keyboard, mouse, speakers and Monitor. Thats a pain too.

If the VM will allow me to set up all this on XP and run it thru there(as if I were running win 98), then I dont need to make triple boot, or the old Win 98 machine.

As far as I can tell just about any Virtual Machine (VM) will run Win 98. However, I do not know of any that will let you use a joystick (a mouse will work just fine).

Also, most VM's have minimal video characteristics (but they should be plenty fine for a Win 98n install).

I would say to give it a try. I play some of my old DOS games in a DOS VM that runs in Windows XP with 4 Meg of RAM.

Oh, VMWare Player runs Win 98 great.

yep. minimal vid characteristics.... dont use a joystick so no biggie there) Win98 works fine. running games in Win98 thru VBox not so much. i got DosBox working fine so some of Dos Games work just fine with no tweaking, adding or adjustments.I really only have 2 or 3 games that i like(d) to play (and can now play them again) in DOS. Panzer General 2 awesome hex based board style game with some enhanced graphics player based move and fire in phases in player turns. All the WWII stuff except pacific theatre. the other is the Age of Rifles. Mostly Civil war battles, but also many other based on cannons and rifles (pre flight) wars and battles. It is a great game. Love playing it but some of the larger battles can take a long time.

I am seriously just considering going with a dual boot machine, win 98 and Xp, then leave my 'good XP machine as is XP/Linux Mint boot and my Lappy as Win 7/ Linux Mint. or leav it alone and just use the old Win98 machine for the Mech2 series plus my dos games (they run fine on it too)

The Virtual machines (that I can use on the old XP machine) dont seem to have the ability to load in vid and sound drivers for win 98 thus making Mech2 (series) playable.

it was worth a try.

Just curious, on your VMPlayer, does it recognize your true video adapter and (stand alone) sound card or does it just say standard pci compatible ? If it says standard, have you ever tried to install the win98 drivers for it thru vmplayer? (there may be an older version of vmplayer i CAN use but not worth the effort if it wont let me install the correct vid card and sound card settings...)

yep. minimal vid characteristics.... dont use a joystick so no biggie there) Win98 works fine. running games in Win98 thru VBox not so much. i got DosBox working fine so some of Dos Games work just fine with no tweaking, adding or adjustments.I really only have 2 or 3 games that i like(d) to play (and can now play them again) in DOS. Panzer General 2 awesome hex based board style game with some enhanced graphics player based move and fire in phases in player turns. All the WWII stuff except pacific theatre. the other is the Age of Rifles. Mostly Civil war battles, but also many other based on cannons and rifles (pre flight) wars and battles. It is a great game. Love playing it but some of the larger battles can take a long time.

I am seriously just considering going with a dual boot machine, win 98 and Xp, then leave my 'good XP machine as is XP/Linux Mint boot and my Lappy as Win 7/ Linux Mint. or leav it alone and just use the old Win98 machine for the Mech2 series plus my dos games (they run fine on it too)

The Virtual machines (that I can use on the old XP machine) dont seem to have the ability to load in vid and sound drivers for win 98 thus making Mech2 (series) playable.

it was worth a try.

Just curious, on your VMPlayer, does it recognize your true video adapter and (stand alone) sound card or does it just say standard pci compatible ? If it says standard, have you ever tried to install the win98 drivers for it thru vmplayer? (there may be an older version of vmplayer i CAN use but not worth the effort if it wont let me install the correct vid card and sound card settings...)

I see your point Chief, I had a problem getting any VM to run Mercs 3.1 in virtual Windows XP. In that case, I would try a Win 98 dual-boot as well.

BTW: I believe Windows 2000 onward has a boot manager, so dual booting win Win XP as one of the OS's should work fine.

Well, vettie...it seems we like the same stuff...PG 2 ..wow... it rocks !and allied general, pacific general,fantasy general... GREAT GAMES ! long live SSI ,lol

Also , have you ever played Perfect General 2 ? you will love it...it has passing fire, many many options,you never get tired of it! but ite really really old...

No. I ran across a few other games that I really like too, West Front, East Front and The rising Sun. These (I dont remember the company, but surprisingly it was not SSI (I think built most of the best War games for PC)) were designed by the same guys that that did the Advanced Squad Leader (Avalon Hill Board game), Robert McNamara and some others. (I found a link about the games http://www.matrixgames.com/products/318/details/John.Tiller%27s.Campaign.Series )It was more or less ASL brought to the PC. They just never seemed to take off. People wanted more 'video' action and real time fighting, I guess. I love Panzer Gen 2, I bought Panz Gen 3-D, but it was more about the graphics than the game play. I actually liked PG2 MUCH more. I played Allied general alot too, but I like PG2 the most.I really think tho, that The Age of Rifles (also SSI) is or maybe my fav of them. It covers battles using only rifled warfare (including canons) from Napoleons are up an thru WWI. Some others beyond that, but that is the typical eras covered. It was made to be a piece of software that the USER could build their own scenarios, maps, forces and time frames. I ran across it one day sifting through some cheap games (like 5$) ans I saw the SSI logo on it. I read a little about it and bought it. Its DOS only, but man, i really like it. The style is similar to PG2, Allied General and so on but it does have animation and reaction fire or formations or hold fire or suppression fire, really cool game. When i first got it, I built a map and some forces / scenario and play it. It worked pretty easily, but you had to save anything you did to the lil floppy drives, couldnt save to hard drive. I have since lost the floppies...SSI really know how to build quality software. The games were good, they were fun and they were bug free. I always felt like I got my $ worth.